Few athletes can ever have described breaking the Olympic record as a "formality" but Bradley Wiggins is among that select group. Yesterday, having shaved 0.134sec off his own time from Athens 2004 in beginning his defence of the 4,000m pursuit title, the 28-year-old Londoner added that he was surprised the opposition had not offered more of a challenge.

Worryingly for Hayden Roulston, the New Zealander who looks likely to be his opponent in the final phases today, Wiggins was saving his strength.

"It was a formality, really, a formality," said Wiggins after qualifying nearly four seconds faster than Roulston. The Briton and his coaches had originally scheduled for a 4min 13sec ride - a cool two seconds under the Olympic record - but had decided to take it conservatively when his potential opponents did not go as fast as had been expected.

"When we saw the other times we thought we would throttle back a bit. I'm a bit surprised that no one is closer," Wiggins added. "This is the Olympics after all, and I thought everyone would up their game a bit. I've worked my nuts off for this and I'd have thought everyone would have a bit more than that."

The reigning world champion across his three disciplines, the Briton is aiming to take three Olympic golds in the five days of track competition beginning with the individual pursuit today, continuing with the team event tomorrow and Monday and then contesting the madison with Mark Cavendish on Tuesday.

In his qualifier Wiggins was up against the world championship bronze medallist, Alexei Markov of Russia, the pair starting on opposite sides of the track and "pursuing" each other for the distance. Wiggins started steadily but was the fastest man on the track after two kilometres, by which time it was clear that he was within Olympic record pace.

Riding with the implacable rhythm of a metronome, Wiggins never faltered and, as the third kilometre approached, he had Markov in his sights. By the finish they were in the same straight and the Briton was in total control.

Wiggins will face the slowest qualifier, Alexander Serov of Russia, in today's second round, which will in turn decide the line-ups for the finals - with the fastest four going through to ride-offs for gold and silver, bronze and fourth.

Steven Burke, Wiggins's 20-year-old team-mate, made his Olympic debut in fine style, catching his opponent Carlos Alzate of Colombia with two laps remaining to finish in 4min 22.26sec, knocking nine seconds off his personal best for the distance. He qualified in fifth place and will race Volodymyr Dyudya of the Ukraine this morning. For a youngster who was supposed to be merely back-up in the team pursuit, it is heady stuff. "The ride of the day for us," said the performance manager, Shane Sutton

In the biggest upset of the evening the silver medallist at the Manchester world championships, Jenning Huizenga of the Netherlands, was overhauled in the third kilometre by Roulston, finishing in a surprisingly slow 4min 37.097sec in spite of using a curious aerodynamic position, with his hands up in front of his face.

Wiggins was not the only British pursuiter to take a starring role yesterday. The world champion, Rebecca Romero, and her team-mate, Wendy Houvenaghel, dominated the qualifying round in the women's 3,000m, both breaking the 3min 30sec barrier and finishing within a fifth of a second of each other, with Houvenaghel marginally the faster in 3min 28.443sec.

Both dominated doughty opponents: Houvenaghel, fourth to Romero at the World Championships in Manchester, was up against the American Sarah Hammer, the silver medallist in Manchester and "a future Olympic champion", according to her website. Romero faced the bronze medallist, Katie Mactier. In both cases the outcome was the same: each gained implacably, with Romero blasting past the Australian in the final straight to scotch rumours that she may be below par.

Their only opponent on yesterday's form looks to be the Ukrainian Lesya Kalitovska, more than three seconds behind, which bodes well for a weekend when they will race the second round today to decide the line-ups for tomorrow's finals. "The two girls came up trumps," said Sutton, "and Brad is back on it after a little bit of illness last week."

There is certainly more to come from Wiggins. He has not even put on the afterburners yet," said his coach, Matt Parker, while, even if Romero and Houvenaghel are already at their very best, that should be good enough for two more medals tomorrow.